WEEK 03

[modmachine]

Preparation for the holidays continues at a steady - if slow - pace. Almost all traces of Halloween are gone by now, except for a few rotting pumpkins shoved into compost heaps, but with over a month until Christmas and the Day of Lights, nobody is yet in a hurry. Still, a few early holiday shoppers are out and about, usually in pairs if they aren't families with children, happily chattering about gift plans.

Weather forecast: The rain has passed, and days grow clear again for this week. Hex’s weather has been getting colder, and people are bundling up a bit more - even those who don’t need to, just in an effort to fit in. Hats and gloves are being prominently displayed in stores, even if they’re not strictly needed yet.

Moon phase: The moon is full on Monday the fourteenth, reaching peak fullness over the city at about 2AM. Afterwards, it begins to wane.

More employment: More decorations for the Day of Lights are going up, with some stronger-backed labor being recruited for the stockrooms in preparation for the incoming holiday rush. No one seems concerned about work history, a boon for people without a human paper trail. The park lights aren't finished yet, either, though things are on schedule to open next week.

Hitting the books: To prepare for the holidays, and raise funds for their community party, the library near the university is selling some of its used books. Most of them are fine, if an odd selection - you might find a cookbook, or you might find a book of poetry. There’s something weird about the books, though - a few of them smell faintly of mint. Watching over all of this is a sharp-eyed librarian. Don’t take a book without paying, or she’ll get up from her desk and try to block the door. She keeps having to chase away teenagers with dirty hands, too.

Bake sale: Some of the local schools are starting to take up donations for their holiday parties. One in particular in the residential district is holding a bake sale in front of the elementary school for an hour each day after classes let out. If you can fight through the sea of small children hoping someone will buy them something, you’ll find a variety of brownies, cookies, and tiny cakes. Many of them are lopsided, but a few look put together by expert hands. They cost more, of course, but it’s all for a good cause. A grouchy mother can be found near the cash box at all times, making sure no one steals the money.

Whoo are you?: Malin will notice that owls seem to be happening at her; they're hard to see, just shapes against the lesser-dark of the night sky, but they definitely seem to be watching her. They particularly seem to gather when she feeds. If she doesn't confront them, this will increase slowly but measurably throughout the week.

Time waits for no one: An old clock tower in the part of downtown leading into the Sixth has been restored to functionality... Mostly. The belltower stands empty, though there's a visible place where a bell should be hung, several stories above the floor. Ryoji might find the scene familiar. On Wednesday evening, there is some kind of reopening gathering at the church below it; the brief service and meet-and-greet is not particularly unusual, save that the young Acolyte handing out papers in the entry won't step into the congregation hall itself.

Like a dog with a bad...: In the Sixth, the construction is ongoing, still with the same handful of men, who rotate through almost like randomly generated NPCs. Lurking around outside is a thickly built man, who watches the whole goings-on with suspicion; strangely, he seems to be watching it mostly through the camera on his phone. On Friday morning, though it shouldn't be cold enough for frost, three of the strangely similar men slip on patches of ice and fall behind a half-finished wall... Where they vanish completely. They reappear after lunch, if it's even the same men, with no signs of injury. That afternoon, the man with his phone looks smug.

A touch of the season: And speaking of ice, passage into many of the city's Avernian Gates is blocked this week by a thick frost that seals the entries shut. An Unsettling Youth and his girlfriend can occasionally be seen investigating them; though they're constantly together, they don't seem much inclined to talk to each other. Occasionally, she'll drape her arm over his shoulders and giggle, while he looks confused; other times, she seems almost to shy away from him.

Comments

[runs]

She isn't sure what his thing is with that lighter, but this time around she doesn't get unsettled by it, just lets him finish. It seems to calm him, somehow.

If he doesn't talk, she will eventually speak up. "What are you looking for?"

[notachickenhawk]

"Those things. The thing I thought you might be when I first met you." His throat is a little dry, so the response comes off more raspy than he means it to. He swallows, tries to get his voice back.

"Saw some before. Knew they'd still be around. Thought I had a breather." He can't, though. Since when did he have a break in the past three years? Never. Even these few weeks, he shouldn't have gotten complacent. He should have been hunting more... but doing this without backup is a bad idea.

... But he can't go back to the others. Not while he's still angry with Jake. He'd get into a fight with him and he knows that it'd tear things apart, which would be even worse.

[runs]

"The ones that you hunt?"

That would make sense with how he brandished his lighter at her. He'd done that back then, too.

"...Why can't you just stop hunting them?" There had to be a reason, probably one that can't be reasoned with, but perhaps one that she can help with. Tobias... is someone whose continued survival is really important to her.

[notachickenhawk]

"... Because I don't want other people being hurt." Sure, he hurts people sometimes for lessons. And sure, sometimes other Beasts kill people outright for theirs. But not on the scale that he's seen some Strix go out and kill people over. Not acting on base desires.

[runs]

A long pause follows in which she puzzles over his words.

"You put yourself in danger for nothing but feeling good for having helped people?"

That's... that explains a lot, about how he has helped her so far without asking for anything or even any information. It's also very foreign to her, something that should only exist on TV. And it is an approach that, she realizes, she doesn't want him to have. Because people who are even a bit like that die. All (well, almost all) people die, but people with a sense for heroics die faster.

[notachickenhawk]

"... Pretty much." He tugs his jacket around himself a bit more tightly. "I do what I have to. I guess they have their own instincts to follow, but if they kill people then there's no one I can feed from or do my job properly."

He's not sure why they are what they are. He's never really had much of a chance to talk to them. They're not family, though. Not really. There's nothing that he can do with them or for them. The only thing he can do is try to kill them.

[runs]

"But you don't have to do it. There are others that do it too, and they aren't alone."

The part about feeding only makes so much sense to her - unless they kill in high numbers, but wouldn't they attract much more powerful enemies than a single teenager and a few of his friends then? You can only be so covert if you kill too much.

[notachickenhawk]

He's quiet for a few moments. "... I don't. But if I didn't act and they killed someone because I just let it go... it's on me." The Horror doesn't care, as long as it feeds. As long as it inflicts the lesson. But he can't just throw everything away.

[runs]

"Then you should find a team. Doesn't have to be the same one."

He made it rather clear that going back wasn't an option, but... "They can't be the only people like you here." Surely there have to be more, don't they?

[notachickenhawk]

"They're not, but..." But what? What is he afraid of?

... Well. The obvious. "What if I lose someone again?"

[runs]

"Then you learn to move on."

She kicks her legs until they are almost a straight line, staring at the tips of her toes before they fall back down to rest against the wall of the house again.

"When they got Leo, I ...it was all our fault, a bit. His, too, of course, but... But if I'd been more attentive, if I'd noticed that they had set up a trap, then maybe I could have warned him. I was in a position where I could have seen if I'd known what to look for. If I'd thought what to look for." Leo had been nice past what he needed to be, even though he'd probably never have admitted to it. She'd liked him, more than Natasha or Hiro. Perhaps because he'd been there from the beginning, maybe because he'd been so much of a dad without ever being benevolent or patronizing, maybe because... she has no idea. Perhaps it had really been that he had been the first teammate of her whom she had lost to death.

Everyone in the shadows had their demons, his just had been a bit big for him. "But it was easier when the same happened with Natasha. You learn to deal with it."

[notachickenhawk]

"... I don't want to learn to deal with it. I don't want it to happen in the first place." He knows that's childish, but it's true. He either stops caring or stops teaming up, and the first one... based on how quickly he started taking in Kitty, he doesn't think that's likely.

[runs]

"If you don't team up you'll all go alone, or in smaller groups, and then it will be even more likely to happen again."

Don't get yourself killed or she'll kick you. She'll find a way.

[notachickenhawk]

"It's not like our group was all that big. But... if I go it alone, if I get hurt... there's not many people who would care." Would she? He's not sure. He hasn't known her that long. Maybe he's helped her out, but it's not really long enough that she should really be caring about him.

Right?

[runs]

"Well, I would. And if you get killed because you're careless and heroic, I'll find you in the afterlife and kick you."

It's pretty much an empty threat, because she doesn't believe in a life after death, but she will be angry at him. And sad, and probably have a significantly harder time dealing with this place.

[notachickenhawk]

He stares at her for a moment, before laughing briefly. "S... sorry, I'm not laughing at you..."

He sort of is, but it's not a bad laughter.

"I just didn't expect that you'd get so attached..."

[runs]

"You're nice, you got me stuff, and you know how this place works." All very pragmatic reasons, if he doesn't buy emotional ones.

Which... she has no idea. She just knows that his survival and staying around free and well is important to her.

[notachickenhawk]

"Yeah. That's true." He scoots a little bit closer to her. "You only keep me around for your food, huh?" He smiles slightly and sticks out his tongue.

[runs]

"Well, you haven't given me any lately." Not that she needed it, she found out about the soup kitchens, but... "Have you been eating enough?"

[notachickenhawk]

"I..." He hesitates. He's grabbed a few things from there himself, but... still. "Enough."

He knows that's not true, but he's alive. "... I'm going to have to let my Horror feed soon, though."

[runs]

Enough often means that it isn't technically enough, only enough to not die. Which is nowhere close to enough.

"You'll have to eat properly to fight. Both ways."

She doesn't think that she can help with his Horror, but she can with other things. It'll just require some ...resourcefulness.

[notachickenhawk]

"... I know." He shouldn't have let himself get this hungry. Now he's going to put people in danger if he doesn't eat soon.

What to do... "I'll go out hunting tonight. You'll be okay tonight, right?"

[runs]

"I'll be in my tent."

She nods. There have been no issues so far with that, even though she often gets up at night to snoop around for a bit before going back to sleep.

[notachickenhawk]

"Okay." It's not exactly the prettiest of activities - he'll have to find a good target to hit. And it's going to have to be big...

He'll find something. If he doesn't, he's in trouble, but that's not Kitty's problem. Or it won't be, because he won't let it be. "I've been looking for places to bed down for the winter... a lot of the warehouses have leaks, so they're no good."

[runs]

"What does everyone else in the camp do?"

She's noticed a few of them having disappeared already, who even knows where - probably relatives that they can crash with during the nights in the winter, or something akin to that.